Cal Thomas vs Pat Robertson or They Eat Their Own

[RTFirefly]

*Originally posted by andros *
As odious as I find Mr. Robertson, I don’t know that I see the hypocrisy.

It seems pretty obvious to me. Assuming that Pat’s publicly taken the standard conservative Christian gambling-is-evil stance, then I don’t see a whole lot of difference between buying a race horse and buying stock in a company that owns gambling casinos. Either way, he’s investing in the gambling industry, going out of his way to become part of the system that enables and encourages others to gamble.

According to the Christian Coalition website, at least some forms of gambling are wrong:

The Christian Coalition of America supports the enactment of the Student Athlete Protection Act. This legislation would ban gambling on amateur athletic events, including high school and college sports.

This includes Internet gambling:

The Christian Coalition of America supports the enactment of the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. This legislation is designed to put a stop to online gambling at the over 700 gambling sites on the Internet today. If Internet gambling is left unchecked, the privacy and easy-access that the Internet provides will result in an even greater temptation to our nation’s poor, our youth, and those who are gambling addicts.

But according to Dave McKenna of the Washington DC CityPaper, Pat’s objections to Internet gambling don’t apply if the betting involves horses:

during the last session of Congress, the Christian right got behind the campaign of Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) to ban Internet gambling. But many of the groups that originally supported Goodlatte’s bill pulled out when exemptions for several gambling endeavors, most notably horse racing, were inserted.

Robertson, however, stuck by the pro-racing version of the anti-gambling bill…

So he thinks gambling’s bad, although it’s apparently not quite so bad if it involves horses. Which he owns.

I’d consider that hypocritical.

And (same source) Pat went out of his way to hide his involvement in racing from the world, which doesn’t say anything about his hypocrisy on gambling, but practically screams that he lacks the courage of his convictions, to the extent that one can say he has any:

For example, after Tappat bolted around a rival named Praise Heaven heading down the stretch at Laurel Park to win the Walter Haight Handicap in July 1999, the horse’s owner didn’t show up in the winner’s circle, as is customary in racing, to receive his trophy and get his picture taken. Winning trainer Thomas Greene, who did accept the honors on behalf of Tega Farm, identified the absentee owner to reporters only as “a Virginia Beach outfit.”

That’s the kind of secrecy the stable likes from its hands. Actually, that’s the kind of secrecy the Tega stable demands.

“I signed a disclosure form saying I wouldn’t talk about the owners of Tega,” says Earl “Abraham” Ola, a former trainer for Robertson.

Even the simplest information about Robertson’s racing operation is off the table. “I’m not at liberty to discuss that,” Tega Farms business manager Karon Locher says when asked how many horses the stable now runs.

There’s no mention of Robertson’s horse racing operation on his personal Web site, either.

I’m sure I dislike Cal Thomas every bit as much as you do, andros. And as usual, even on this issue, Cal’s logic is nearly nonexistent. His mentioning of Pat’s purchase of a colt for over a half-million dollars is done in a way to suggest that such use of large amounts of money is itself immoral, but he doesn’t explain why. Would it have been OK, or at least less evil, if Pat had bought a $5000 claimer? Is Cal rebuking Pat on Biblical grounds for spending such large wads of cash on selfish and vain pursuits, rather than putting them to charitable uses?

Who knows? Cal Thomes really is America’s stupidest big-time columnist, and he did a typically lousy job of showing where Robertson’s hypocrisy lies. But it doesn’t make it less real.

[Polycarp]

::: waves Hi at Michie :::

Not to hijack this thread or anything, but can I just say how proud I am of all you folks who have posted both boards and who welcomed her here?

[andros]

You’re right, Rufus (watched you on TCM t’other night, BTW). I meant to say that “In the article, Cal offers no evidence of hypocrisy.” I certainly see it myself.